The inaugural RightsTech Summit was held in New York last week at the Japan Society, across the street from the United Nations. Sponsored by Concurrent Media and Digital Media Wire, the summit brought together over 100 industry leaders, entrepreneurs, copyright experts, and artists from across multiple media and entertainment sectors for a full day of panels and keynotes on topics ranging from blockchain-based rights registries, cryptocurrencies, enterprise-level rights management platforms, smart contracts and more.
We have complete audio on five of the seven panel discussions, as well as the two keynote Q&As.

On September 27th and 28th, Concurrent Media and DMW will host two mornings of RightsTech workshops in New York as part of the DMW New York Media Festival. We will also be announcing plans for the broader RightsTech initiative kicking off later this year. Read More »

PledgeMusic CEO and founder of the DotBlockchainMusic project Benji Rogers was interviewed by Robert Levine, author of “Free Ride” and a former executive editor at Billboard, during a keynote conversation at the inaugural RightsTech Summit on July 26 in New York. Among the topics they discussed was the potential for blockchain technology to create an immutable but endlessly updatable ledger of “digital truth” regarding the ownership and priority of sound recordings and musical compositions.

Co-produced by Concurrent Media Strategies and Digital Media Wire, the RightsTech Summit brought together over 100 senior media and technology executives, thought-leaders, entrepreneurs, and artists from across multiple media and entertainment industries for a wide-ranging discussion of technology innovation around the registration, management and licensing of media rights on digital platforms. The next RightsTech event will be held in New York in September in conjunction with Digital Media Wire’s New York Media Festival.

Video of Benji Roger’s keynote is available here. We’ll have audio from several other sessions from last week’s Summit up shortly.

PledgeMusic is a direct-to-fan music platform that enhances the fan-artist dynamic from the creation of music to its experience in digital and live formats. The platform allows fans to play a part in the actual music making side of an artist’s work while the creators get a better, more intimate understanding of the people that support their careers. In short, PledgeMusic has created a digital environment that breaks from all traditional production-to-distribution channels in today’s hyperconnected world.

A key feature of PledgeMusic allows artists to sell a project straight to their fans before it comes to fruition. In a campaign artists can take preorders for albums, for instance, or offer other products or experiences to their super fans as incentives for funding an idea. Another way PledgeMusic is revolutionizing the creation and distribution of music is through direct purchases and the implementation of blockchain.

Benji Rogers is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of PledgeMusic and the lead musician behind the band Marwood. A public speaker, investor, and musician from London and New York, Rogers was the recipient of the A&R Worldwide “Digital Executive of the Year” award, and in 2013 he was named to Billboard‘s 40 Under 40 Power Players list. Digital Media Wire had the chance to ask Benji some questions about PledgeMusic, the music industry, and the role of blockchain in this new model. Below is a recording of Benji’s responses along with a transcription.Read More »

The global music business offered up two cheers this week for the first signs of life in the recorded music business in nearly a decade. According to International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) latest global sales report, total recorded music revenue grew 3.2 percent in 2015, to $15.0 billion, the biggest jump since 1998 and the only growth since 2012, when sales ticked up 0.3 percent.

The overall growth came entirely from digital sources, particularly streaming revenue, which jumped 45 percent over 2014, to $2.9 billion, or 19 percent of total revenues. Physical sales continued their decade-long slide, falling another 4.5 percent, buoyed somewhat by the continued renaissance of vinyl.

The strong streaming numbers were not evenly distributed, however. Subscription streaming revenue accounted for $2 billion of the $2.9 billion total, as the total number of paying subscribers reached 68 million, while industry revenue from ad-supported streaming amounted to a mere $634 million, despite more than 900 million listeners worldwide.

The report referred to the mismatch between consumption and revenue to artists and labels as a “market-distorting value gap,” that must be closed, echoing comments last month by RIAA CEO Cary Sherman. Read More »

PledgeMusic founder and CEO Benji Rogers did not set out to become the leader of a movement when he posted his now-famous essay last November describing how the blockchain — the technological underpinning of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin — could be used to untangle the notoriously Byzantine world of music licensing and payments. Here is new developments in crypto. It was more a thought experiment than a business plan. But his ideas struck such a chord in the industry that Rogers has been thrust into the unwonted role of leading spokesman for the use of blockchain in the music business.

PledgeMusic CEO Benji Rogers

“I could never have imagined that the article I wrote would have the impact that it has,” Rogers would write a few months later in a follow up post. “In the short time since it came out, I have been overwhelmed by offers to speak publicly, offers of help and even offers to fund ‘what you are building.’ So I need to be clear here before we begin: this is not something that I am building.”

There are many in and around the music industry who would like to try, however.

By putting the blockchain at the center of his proposal Rogers helped spark growing interest in the industry in using the technology to bring transparency to the famously opaque world of music rights, where simply identifying who owns a musical work or recording, and who is entitled to be paid for which uses, can be near-impossible, keeping works out of the hands of would-be licensees. Blockchain was a major topic of discussion at this year’s SXSW conference, where it bore for full slate of panels. Read More »

Events

Judges on a federal appeals court on Thursday grilled the Department of Justice (DOJ) over its challenge to a lower court decision blessing the AT&T-Time Warner merger. Source: Judges grill DOJ over challenge to AT&T-Time Warner merger

Netflix and Amazon view Europe as a key battleground, but a new local quota and pushback from traditional broadcasters present challenges. Source: Netflix, Amazon Face New Parameters and Challenges in Europe

A media landscape prone to tectonic shifts is likely to feel a series of aftershocks once Democrats take control of the House. Source: Media mega-mergers under threat with Democrats controlling the House

MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe opens up about ticketing service’s tumultuous year and its plans to battle back from the brink. Source: MoviePass Announces New Pricing While Promising to Win Back Customers’ Trust

Comcast Xfinity TV customers will be able to sync their accounts with Movies Anywhere in order to access their movie purchases from the Xfinity Digital Store alongside those from other digital retailers. Source: Digital movie collection app Movies Anywhere adds its first pay TV partner, Comcast

Four months after Comcast announced it was integrating Amazon Prime Video, the app is finally rolling out to Comcast’s Xfinity platform nationwide. Source: Amazon Prime Video is finally coming to Comcast Xfinity

The main issue of live streaming is that it potentially damages the broadcasters’ investment whereby the benefits of exclusive rights owed to them fail to tally with the expected output. Source: Digital Streaming: Snuffing The Life Out Of Live Sports On TV